LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - The Bank of England decided not
to pump fresh money into its stagnant economy on Thursday,
despite a new remit that gives it more leeway to disregard
above-target inflation.

Further stimulus may still be on its way, however, after
finance minister George Osborne tweaked the central bank's
mandate two weeks ago.

He gave the bank stronger backing to ignore the series of
one-off factors that have kept inflation above target for most
of the time since the financial crisis.

The remit also paves the way for a broader review of the
Bank of England's monetary policy when Mark Carney, who
currently heads Canada's central bank, succeeds BoE Governor
Mervyn King in July.

But for now there is no majority on the nine-member Monetary
Policy Committee to add to the 375 billion pounds of government
bonds it bought between March 2009 and October 2012, in line
with economists' expectations.

Interest rates remained at a record-low 0.5 percent.

The British central bank's decision contrasts with that of
the Bank of Japan, which has been under more overt political
pressure to stimulate its economy. It shocked markets earlier on
Thursday when it pledged to double its government bond holdings
within two years.

Although King and two other policymakers backed restarting
the BoE's asset-buying quantitative eaisng programme in February
and March, there has been no sign of a softening in the
opposition of the other six members, who are more concerned
about inflation and sterling weakness.

Sterling strengthened slightly against the dollar and June
gilt futures fell to a session low after the bank's decision, as
economists had seen a slim chance of action this month.

But economists think more stimulus is likely later in 2013,
either when the central bank publishes a quarterly update to its
economic forecasts next month or after the Carney's arrival.

"Although the MPC left policy on hold again today, we
suspect that the decision was still a close one. And while the
chances of more asset purchases in May have perhaps declined, we
still think Mark Carney's arrival in July could jump-start the
committee into action," said Samuel Tombs of Capital Economics.

Britain's economy has stagnated over the past two years as
it struggles to move away from government spending and financial
services and towards exports after the financial crisis.

After a 0.3 percent contraction in the last three months of
2012, it risks tipping into its third recession in less than
five years - though a March services survey released on Thursday
suggested it may eke out modest 0.1 percent economic growth.

The Bank of England will not publish details of the policy
discussion at the two-day MPC meeting until April 17.